49 tigers died in India this year, most in Madhya Pradesh, Parliament told

NEW DELHI: Nearly 50 tigers have died in India this year with the highest number of deaths recorded in Madhya Pradesh, the Lok Sabha was told Friday.


Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma in a written reply said as per figures recorded till December 12, total tiger mortality stood at 49, with 13 and 10 deaths registered in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, respectively.


He also said around 13 elephant casualties in train accidents have been reported in 2018-19 (up to November 15 in 2018).

He said around 35 elephant died by electrocution in 2018-19 (up to November 15 in 2018), while three elephants have died during the same period due to poaching.

Replying to another question, he said the total number of leopard poached during 2015, 2016 and 2017 are 194 and in the current year till October, the figure is 66.

Sharma said the Environment Ministry in partnership with the German Development Cooperation (through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)) has approved the Indo-German technical cooperation project on 'Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation in India'.

"The project aims at providing technical support to the government of India at the national level and in selected sites as pilot states like Karnataka, Uttarakhand and West Bengal only," he added.